TIRANA, July 31 – The opposition’s Democratic Party released on Monday documents alleging that Independent Qualification Commission member Lulzim Hamitaj falsified his English language certificate, thus demanding his resignation and the initiation of a penal investigation towards him by the prosecution.
According to DP MP Enkelejd Alibeaj, when Hamitaj applied for lecturer at Tirana’s European University, his CV announced an elementary, B1 level knowledge of English, while among the documents submitted to the re-evaluation bodies there was a proof dating in 2015 that he possesses high, C1 level knowledge of the English language.
Moreover, the DP claims that Hamitaj was not in Albania at the time he claims to have given the C1 exam that would grant him a language certificate.
“These facts create a reasonable conviction that Lulzim Hamitaj, Commissioner at the Independent Qualification Commission, has cheated state bodies and used a fake document in order to secure the qualification in the competition. This serious fact shows that he does not enjoy the right moral integrity to exercise the important task in the vetting bodies,” the DP’s announcement claimed.
According to the DP’s legal expert Gazmend Bardhi, the IQC should begin the necessary procedures to fire Hamitaj, while the prosecution should begin a penal investigation, as using false documents foresees four years of imprisonment as punishment.
There has been no reaction to the facts published by the DP so far, either by the IQC or by Hamitaj himself.
Meanwhile, the General Prosecution Office announced through a brief statement that it “requested the assessment of the case by forwarding it to the competent prosecution office for investigation.”
